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Gardening With Your Koi Pond Waste

Whenever we build a koi pond we always ask about where the fish waste will go. Similar to that of a fish tank, a koi pond or water garden will need to be cleaned or what we call “backwashed” – the process of emptying fish waste from the filtration media. Typical pond companies suggest to have this waste go down the drain and be discarded of, but we always suggest to have the fish waste routed to your herbs or local garden.

Use koi fish waste on your garden vs store-bought synthetics

The process is not that difficult. We simply setup your pond equipment to be routed around your yard and garden. Once a month or however often your pond needs to be backwashed (this depends on how many fish you have vs pond size) you simply turn a lever and let the pond waste flow around your garden.

Not all pond equipment is setup to connect to your plants

Don’t let a pond company sell you on submersible pumps and filtration as these cannot be backwashed like that of a bio-filtration system or pressure filter (external pond equipment) we always suggest having pond equipment capable of backwashing so you may remove the waste from your pond entirely. Submersible equipment (that goes inside your water pond) doesn’t allow backwashing and only collects the waste over time, eventually needing to replace or clean the filtration media manually. This is more work for the pond owners and serves to be more unpleasant for those who own water features.